FREEPORT, N.Y., Dec. 26, 2007

Sweet Slice Of Home For The Troops

Internet Cake Business Sends Cakes To Service Members In Iraq And Afghanistan

  • Play CBS Video Video A Taste Of Home For Troops

    More than 180,000 service men and women are spending the holidays in Iraq and Afghanistan far away from family. As Bianca Solorzano reports, some are at least getting a taste of home.

  • “Our goal is to send out a cake to every soldier stationed around the world,” says Josh Kaye, owner of Bake Me A Wish.

    “Our goal is to send out a cake to every soldier stationed around the world,” says Josh Kaye, owner of Bake Me A Wish.  (CBS)

  • Photo Essay Week In Iraq Photos

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  • Interactive Battle For Iraq

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(CBS)  Most people like cake. But some people really love it.

“Double fudge crunch cake … tiramisu, my favorite,” says Josh Kaye, who owns an Internet cake business, Bake Me A Wish. “A cake means love. That amazing sensation that when you eat it feeling somebody's cared about you to bake it for you."

Kaye’s Web site takes online orders for custom cakes for birthdays and holidays, CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano reports.

The cakes are made in New York, but are shipped all over - and we do mean all over.

“I received a phone call from a mom who wanted to send her son a birthday cake in Iraq, and I hung up the phone and said, you know, ‘What an amazing possibility that would be.’”

He was already donating cakes, to the tune of 5,000 a year, to the Make A Wish Foundation.

He found the pipeline to the troops with the help of the military support group, Soldiers’ Angels, which adopts service members stationed overseas.

“The two weeks before he deployed, this is him in my father’s yard,” said Vicki Spisso. For as long as she can remember, her 19-year-old son Brian Jr. wanted to be a soldier. He's been serving in Iraq since September.

If she was to make a cake for her son, she said she would make “a chocolate cake. He likes chocolate.”

This is the first Christmas away from his family.

“That’s the hardest part - not being able to talk to him every day or know that he’s around,” she said. “It’s the constant worry."

So this holiday season, Brian got his chocolate cake, double fudge crunch. His entire base got cakes too: more than two dozen to share courtesy of Bake Me A Wish.

“They can all, you know, have cake together and just give them a little bit of home for the short period of time while they're eating their cakes,” Spisso said.

FYI: More ways to help our troops this season.
This holiday season some 2,000 cakes are being shipped to Iraq and Afghanistan, but Kaye has an even bigger wish for Bake Me A Wish.

“Our goal is to send out a cake to every soldier stationed around the world,” Kaye said.

Kaye's recipe of love in a box, providing a sweet slice of home for the holidays … and every day.

© MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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by middleman8 December 27, 2007 3:32 AM EST
Yes, Yes hurry, hurry, these under fed, under equipped troops need lots of little cakies and biggie cakies now.
Reply to this comment
by werchange December 27, 2007 12:57 AM EST
MORE TROOPS AND VETERANS SUPPORT RON PAUL
On Veteran''s Day, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul today addressed a crowd of over 5,000 enthusiastic veterans and supporters in Philadelphia. The Veteran''s Day weekend rally took place at Independence Mall. Thousands of veterans and their friends and families heard country music superstar Rockie Lynne open the event for the Texas congressman. John Holland, the founder of a leading advocacy organization for troops, veterans, and POW/MIAs, delivered an enthusiastic endorsement of Congressman Paul, before the congressman addressed the crowd. The rally coincided with the launch of the Veterans for Paul Coalition, a group composed entirely of American war veterans. "Dr. Paul''s support among veterans is extremely high," said Paul campaign spokesman Joe Seehusen. "These great patriots who have fought for our country know that only Dr. Paul''s foreign policy of peace and secure borders can guarantee true national security, and they want him fighting for our country''s freedom." Congressman Paul was himself a Captain in the Air Force who served as a flight surgeon during the "totally unnecessary and illegal" Vietnam war. He receives more campaign contributions from former and active military and military affiliates than any other 2008 presidential candidate. youtube.com/watch?v=KzlqKoON3EM
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